Every year around this time we’re inundated with stories about the top ten people or events of the previous twelve months. Holding to this tradition, this past Thursday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center published their list of the top 10 anti-Semites of 2012.

Mind you, the list is highly subjective, and, no doubt, when we speak of anti-Semites and haters of Israel, many of you have your own favorites. But this group is definitely right up there with the worst. Unsurprisingly, Europe once again is well-represented, as is the Middle East. Likewise, nothing unifies both the far left and the far right better than Jew-hating, since both groups are well represented in this year’s list. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Advertisement

Working backwards at number 10 is long-time favorite and anti-Semite extraordinaire Louis Farrakhan. In October, he came out with his latest accusations: “In Washington right next to the Holocaust museum is the Federal Reserve where they print the money.” He asks, “[I]s that an accident?” In my opinion, that novel remark alone should have earned him a higher rating, but he must have lost points at Wiesenthal for being unimaginative, repeating the age-old mantra that Jews control the media.

Proudly coming in at number 9 is a new one to many: DerSpiegel columnist and editor of the left-wing publication Freitag Jakob Augstein.

In his publications, Augstein frequently castigates Israel’s orthodox community as being akin to Islamic terrorists and sees Israel as a nuclear threat to the world. In a September interview with the Jerusalem Post, Die Welt columnist Henryk Broder, Germany’s leading authority on anti-Semitism, described Augstein the following way: “He’s a pure anti-Semite, an anti-Semitic piece of work, an offender by conviction who only missed the opportunity to make his career with the Gestapo because he was born after the war. He certainly would have had what it takes.”

Norway’s Trond Ali Linstadt, a convert to Islam, is listed at number 8. Also lacking originality, he warns his readers to “beware of the Jews” and the “influence they have in newspapers, in other media, and in many political organs.” Why is he important enough to make the list? Until international pressure forced him to backtrack, the king of Norway, Harald V, had slated him to receive a medal for “good works.” One must assume that the king agrees with Linstadt that suicide bombings are good and that God wants Jews to live in exile as punishment.

In seventh position, representing the right-wing Hungarian Jobbik Party, is Marton Gyongyosi. This sweetheart of a guy, a flashback of historical Hungarian anti-Semitism, recently had this to say to the Hungarian Parliament:

I think now is the time to assess how many people there are of Jewish origin here, and especially in the Hungarian parliament who represent a certain national security risk of Hungary.

The son of a diplomat who grew up in the Middle East — namely, in Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan — his office is replete with souvenirs from these countries.

Number six is the founder of the Greek pro-fascist party Golden Dawn, Nikolaos Michaloliakos. A Holocaust-denier of the first degree, he recently told an interviewer that six million Jews did not die in the Holocaust. He further denies that there were gas chambers or ovens at Nazi death camps and has a penchant for giving the Nazi salute, which he recently gave at the Athens City Council.

What list of anti-Semites could ever be complete without a delegation from that bastion of historical Jew-hatred, the Ukraine? As such, two people — Oleg Tyagnibok, from the fascist Svoboda Party, and MP Igor Miroshnichenko — share the inglorious fifth position.

Tyagnibok has called in the past for purges of the approximately 400,000 Jews living in the Ukraine. Granted, with the despicable and sordid treatment Jews have received over the centuries in the Ukraine, one can’t help but wonder why 400,000 are still living there.

His cohort, politician Igor Miroshnichenko, sparked an outrage this past year when he denounced Hollywood actress Mila Kunis as a dirty Jewess.

The Wiesenthal Center reserved the fourth spot for fans of European soccer. Before a match in Italy between an Italian club, Lazio, and a mainly Jewish team from England, Tottenham Hotspur, Jewish players and fans were physically attacked, one being sent to the hospital with severe stab wounds. A self-proclaimed fascist from the Lazio team, Pablo Di Canio, celebrated each goal by tauntingly delivering a fascist salute. So much for good sportsmanship.

I would add Janos Adler the current head of state of Hungary as #1 on the list.

Unlike the others on your list he has actually spoken out in favor of the Jews of Hungary.

But actions speak louder than words and in his case inaction.

In Budapest Lazlo Czatary who murdered more than 15,000 Hungarian Jews, including my grandmother, sits comfortably in his apartment. He is under house arrest but knows that since Janos Adler has not questioned why he is not yet on trial he will never have to face justice.

Why do 400000 Jews still live in the Ukraine? Because they know they would find no much factual attitude difference wherever.
By a way, becoming regular, the Lviv Jewish Festival attracts cheering crowds of folks from different tribes, not local and visiting Jews only,

Probably, a reality of Jewish opportunities in First World mainstream might more thoroughly be approach by authors considering anti-Semitic trend in 2013.

“Why do 400000 Jews still live in the Ukraine? Because they know that a factual real situation not to differ much wherever. Becoming traditional, the Lviv Jewish Festival attracts cheering crowds of folks from the different tribes, not local and visiting Jews only.
Probably, the authors considering anti-Semitic trend in 2013 should pay more attention to a reality of mainstream opportunities for the Jews even in the First World” -what is interesting, being a copule of minutes ago submitted from iPod after a range of attempts fallen, this article comment #3 somehow has disappeared from a JWP page.

After enabling the MB to take control in Egypt and his latest gift to them of 20 F16 fighter jets and 200 tanks, I would have nominated Obama # 1. While most of us have our heads in the sand he is not so quietly turning the world against us.

Somewhere on the list should be the twin Facebook pages I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists, and I Acknowledge Apartheid Exists. They never fail to find absolutely anything, true or not, photoshopped or not, which shows Israeli atrocities and discrimination toward Palestinians (never distinguishing between Israeli Arabs, and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza), but never, ever, anything either positive about Israel or showing or mentioning Palestinian atrocities against Israelis. So completely one-sided as to be unmentionable, but they get LOTS of likes, and very few people who are willing to counteract their bias.